


Connectivity

by Archadian_Skies



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Aleksis can't Sasha in a skirt, F/M, Ghost-Drifting, Lucid Dreaming, Marriage, Military Uniforms, Pre-Canon, Sasha can't skirt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-26
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mission involving an eighteen hour neural bridge provides the research team an incredible opportunity to study the effects of a prolonged neural handshake on Cherno Alpha's pilots. Man and machine: where does one end and the other begin?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connectivity

Her vision is blurred and red, her hearing muffled and distorted, and all she can think about is closing her eyes and sleeping forever. He's holding her upright and she's shouldering his weight and together they manage to stumble out of the Conn-Pod. Technicians swarm them, unbuckling and disassembling the heavy armour from their exhausted bodies.

_'Get them onto the stretchers.'_

The thin mattress of the stretcher is softer than the cold metal of her suit, and she doesn't protest as she's rearranged to lie prone. She can still feel the sting and hear the crackle of electricity on her fingers, and when she clenches them she hears not her knuckles but the groan of metal.

_'Doctor, did you see-'_

_'Take them into the observation rooms. Keep them separated.'_

_'But Doctor-'_

Sasha clenches her fists tighter and the groan of metal grows louder. 

_'NOW.'_

* * *

 

It has been an hour after disconnection and he can't open his eyes and all he can taste is cheap vodka after their first test Drift together and red lipstick stains on the rims of plain shot glasses and the thought that he needs to find a better brand- one that doesn't smudge so easily.

He licks his lips and the familiar waxen taste of red warpaint is missing. Did they wipe his lipstick off when they examined him?

* * *

 

It has been two hours after disconnection and she knows she needs a shave. She has to trim that wiry beard every day or Sasha will be angry and she wasn't given the chance since the alarm had gone off in the night and they had to scramble to their war machine and then they waited and waited and fought and survived for eighteen hours.

She can smell shaving cream and feel the sharp, careful drag of the blade up her throat and she is sitting on a stool in the bathroom. A warm body was pressed to hers from behind and she can feel thick muscle and soft breasts and hear a teasing giggle as she is told to 'hold still' as she is shaved. Her heart beats faster and her breath hitches and she can hear the giggle turn into a laugh and she wants to swallow that sound in her mouth.

* * *

 

They are in the heart of the medical bay in the Shatterdome, away from Cherno Alpha and all the noise and all the equipment- yet their brainwaves still react as though they are connected.

Fascinating.

He watches as they both raise a hand (she, her right, and he, his left) and wipe their lips. After an hour or so they stroke their chin, before resting their arm and falling still again.

He buzzes the technicians in the Shatterdome.

"Doctor, there are no crews in the Jaeger at all but its hands still twitch." One of them reports, and he can hear a trace of fear in the man's voice.

He watches as Aleksis flexes his fingers, and watches Sasha do the same.

"What is it doing now?"

"Opening and closing its fingers, sir."

He feels himself smile, and the familiar thrill of discovery fills his veins.

* * *

 

Their first trip to Tokyo is thankfully in the deep of winter, and the biting cold is a familiar feeling. He stands a metre taller than everyone else and the result is that they are given a wide berth. The young Japanese girl with Marshall Pentecost is shy but Sasha coaxes her to meet them, like one might a frightened kitten, and she learns the giant is kind and gentle. 

He and Sasha take her outside when the Marshall holds a meeting with the people in expensive wool suits to determine the joint role Russia's newest pilots will play with Japan. Together they build a snowman taller than her and her laughter is a sweet sound to their ears. The glance they share over her head is just as sweet.

* * *

 

The technician stammers that Cherno Alpha had turned slightly to the left.

* * *

 

The boy has a jaw as firm as the pup in his arms, and his eyes are the hardened eyes of one who has lost family. He is young and brash and a prodigy and fire burns in his body, threatening to spill over at any moment and turn all it touches to ashes. He will destroy, Sasha can see this, and his life would be fought in the name of vengeance. It is all he has ever known, and all that she can see in his father's eyes.

He is thirteen and he wants the Pacific to run with the blood of monsters.

Aleksis is eighteen and he wants the boy to remember that men are more important than monsters. Sydney's Shatterdome is new and the autumnal weather is crisp and he makes the boy take him around so they can walk the pup.

Fight for love, he wants to tell him, fight for family. It is all that is worth protecting in this world.

* * *

 

Cherno Alpha clenches its fists.

* * *

 

It nears ten hours since disconnection before Sasha can open her eyes, and another half hour before she can sit up. Her whole body aches and her right eye feels wet and sees red.

She is alone in the room, and the realisation makes something akin to fear curdle in her belly.

* * *

 

They have never been apart for this long before, and it makes Aleksis panic. He knows she's alright, can feel her in his mind, but he can't see her and he can't touch her and it's maddening.

The wall in front of him is made of darkened glass, and he knows there are people on the other side watching him intently.

He walks until his toes touch it, and tries to peer through it and see his captors. Aleksis raises a hand and thuds it against the glass; he wants them to know he is not happy with being confined.

* * *

 

"Doctor, they are showing elevated signs of anxiety."

He hums in thought, watching as the pilots pace their respective rooms. They are matched step for step, and when one pauses so does the other. He buzzes the Shatterdome again.

"It's trying to move, Doctor. Cherno Alpha is leaning forward, and its right heel is about a body's length off the ground."

* * *

 

"Let me out!" Sasha shouts, and she's pounding the glass with her fist. She can feel Aleksis' jumbled thoughts in her head and there's a dull ache in her chest. She doesn't know whether it's from being encased in a metal shell for eighteen hours or because she hasn't been alone in a room for over a decade.

There's little energy left in her, though, and she retreats back to the bed. Curling on her side, she rests her palm against the wall.

_Aleksis._

* * *

 

He knows she's right there, knows her hand is pressed to his if not for the concrete between them. The bed is cold and empty without her, but his mind is full of her.

_Sasha._

* * *

 

"Do you think they'll let us out soon?" She's in his arms and they're lying together and he knows they're just dreaming.

"They better." He answers curtly, and she laughs at the deep growl of his voice. When they are like this he can talk, and she loves that his voice is as big and burly as his body.

"We did it, Aleksis: eighteen hours defending the coastline, and one dead Kaiju."

"Our sixth."

"A fine gift for our anniversary." Sasha declares, and kisses him. She tastes like waxen warpaint. He lets himself fall deeper into their dreams.

* * *

 

Formality. Their wedding was just a formality; just a piece of paper for legal reasons because in all other aspects they are already married. They have been given fine military suits made from olive wool and decorated with patches and pins. 

They have been laughing on and off for a good ten minutes now because she is in a skirt and he is in sock garters and the articles of clothing are so foreign to them; all they know are fatigues and coats and bodysuits made of circuitry.

She has been given heels and she spends the next ten minutes hobbling around clumsily like a newborn foal and he doesn't know if he'll ever stop laughing and she throws a shoe at his head and tackles him to the bed and then they're a tangle of limbs and messy kisses and melting heat and sighes.

They're late for their own wedding at the town hall in Vladivostok, and they have no reverence for the ceremony, and they keep bursting into fits of smothered giggles and chuckles. Her eyes are tender and bright and he wants to burn that memory into the very core of his being.

She makes a mistake when she signs her name, and she laughs as she crosses it out and writes their new shared surname. Before he writes his own, he kisses her again and she kisses him back and they kiss as husband and wife.

They are given wedding gifts from the other Pacific Jaeger teams by post, the greatest from those who pilot Crimson Typhoon; the triplets had graduated with Aleksis and language proved no barrier against friendship. For their wedding the triplets gift them with the most precious gift any Ranger can offer: time. They have a week, uninterrupted, and Crimson Typhoon will take the watch for them.

In the car on the way to the hotel, she rests her hand over his and doesn't let go.

* * *

 

A different technician reports, as the night cycles into day, and this time he is told Cherno Alpha has one hand resting over the other.

He has seen all he needs to see.

"Let them back into their quarters."

* * *

 

In their room, in their bed, he can finally embrace her. She says nothing, only resting her brow to his and keeping his gaze captive in hers. There is a halo of blood ringed around the iris of her right eye, and he surmises he must have one around his left. During the torturous eighteen hour neural bridge, their connection had never faltered; she was the source of his strength, and he trusted her with his life.

_Tzarina._

He bumps his nose to hers affectionately, and she giggles tiredly. Twining their fingers together, she brings his hand to her lips and kisses it.

_We are the victors for another day._

* * *

_  
_There flickers brief flashes of commands, and snippets of sentences run through its wiring. The neural bridge lingers.

Fingers linked, it folds its hands over its chest; over the Conn-pod where its heart lay.

Victorious for another day, it gently releases the bridge between them and lets its pilots sleep in the knowledge that they are safe.

 


End file.
